no remission in the West Indies,-the sin of having taught the slaves the religion of peace, and consoled them for the cruel lot inflicted by the crimes of this world, with the hopes of mercy in another. The arrival of this intelligence in England, speedily produced all the feelings which might well have been expected. Pity for the victim; sympathy with his unhappy widow; fellow feeling for his bereaved flock; alarm at the sight of religious persecution; contempt for the ignorance of the legal, and the pusillanimity of the political authorities; indignation at the injustice of the Courts-were the sentiments that strove for mastery among the great body of the British people; and all were finally concentrated in one single, universal, and implacable feeling of revenge against that execrable system, which, contrary to the law of God, pretends to vest in man a property in his fellow-creatures, as fatal to the character of the oppressor as to the happiness of his victim. After maturely deliberating upon the course most fit to be taken, both with a view to attain the ends of justice, and to make the blow most effectual, which this question enabled him to level at Negro Slavery and colonial misgovernment, Mr. Brougham, on the 1st of June, brought forward his motion of censure upon the Demerara Government, and the Court, its instrument and accomplice in oppression. A debate of surpassing interest ensued. The most distinguished speakers for the motion were Mr. Williams,* Mr. Denman,† and Dr. Lushington. On the other side, the Now a judge in the Court of Queen's Bench. + Now Lord Chief Justice, who has recently shown his habitual love of liberty by declaring Slavery to be unlawful. majority inclined at first to resist the motion, and the Colonial Under Secretary,* met it with a direct negative; but finding they were in peril of a defeat, Mr. Canning, who did not very creditably distinguish himself on this occasion, concluded by moving the previous question, upon which the division was taken. Mr. Tindal,† made on this occasion his first parliamentary speech, with distinguished ability; and Mr. Scarlett, ably argued on the same side; Lord Palmerston and Messrs. Lamb and Grant,§ voted in the ministerial majority, thus giving to the country an early pledge of those principles so hostile to Colonial liberty, on which they have since acted. The motion was lost by 146 to 193 votes, after an adjourned debate. But the effect produced by this great discussion was extreme and powerful. The minds of men were turned to the real state of Negro bondage; the abuses and oppressions committed in the Colonies were fully examined; the impossibility of carrying the acts now every where loudly complained of, unless by destroying so unnatural a system, was generally recognised. "The Missionary Smith's Case" became a watch-word and a rallying cry with all the friends of religious liberty, as well as the enemies of West Indian Slavery. votes of those who had sided with the Government in resisting the motion were carefully recorded, for the purpose of preventing them from ever again being returned to Parliament. The measures of the abolitionists all over the country became more bold and decided, as their principles commanded a more general and warmer * Mr. W. Horton. The + Now Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Now Chief Baron of the Exchequer. § Now Lords Melbourne and Glenelg concurrence; and all men now saw that the warning given in the peroration of the latter of these two speeches, though sounded in vain across the Atlantic Ocean, was echoing with a loudness redoubled at each repetition through the British Isles, that it had rung the knell of the system, and that at the fetters of the slave a blow was at length struck which must, if followed up, make them fall off his limbs for ever. The cause of Negro Emancipation has owed more to this case of individual oppression, mixed with religious persecution, than to all the other enormities of which Slavery has ever been convicted. |